A month or so ago I made a post asking if I should play Pirate's Curse. Now I've not only beaten Pirate's Curse, but purchased and beaten both Half Genie Hero and Seven Sirens, lol. Guess now I just gotta go play the older two.

Pirate's Curse is probably my favorite of the three (big shocker right? Seems to be the general opinion for Shantae fans from what I've seen) and then I'd say Seven Sirens comes in second with Half Genie Hero last.

I feel very torn about Half Genie Hero. I feel like it was a game with very high highs and very low lows. The movement felt tedious and I hated the backtracking combined with linear levels and a seeming uncertainty as to whether the game should be a Metroidvania or platformer. At one point I almost couldn't bring myself to finish it. However, when I say high highs I mean hiiigh highs. The whole second trip to the desert tower sequence was incredible with the puzzle solving going between the different transformations. The ending is also f*king incredible, though a bit tedious. The character writing is super clever, and the atmosphere and music of the various locations can't be understated either.

As far as Seven Sirens goes though, it felt infinitely better. The music definitely wasn't as good as HGH, but honestly it felt like just as decent in every other department, if not better, with waaay better gameplay. I had trouble putting it down! The movement is so crisp, the puzzles are quite creative, and I love the interconnected world and it's incredible theming and arts style. The story is also really sweet and endearing as well as the character writing.

However, it seems like a lot of the discourse in the Shantae community seems to prefer HGH to SS, and I genuinely can't understand why. As I said, HGH definitely has a lot going for it, bit it feels nowhere near where SS is. Maybe I'm completely off too and the community actually does prefer SS. Either way, Shantae is awesome and I'm wondering which I should play next! (Haven't played either of the older games)